Hellas for us
PATTERNS WORKSHOP: Psychosocial interventions with youth in emergency situations
11/3
1st day of the workshop: We introduced ourselves (name, country, interests) and created our own “museum” with arts and crafts.
In this way we met each other and learned how to communicate and express our feelings to totally new different people. We also talk about our own experiences in psychosocial interventions in emergency situations and place each one in the MHPSS intervention pyramid (mental health and psychosocial support).
At the end of the day we had the international night, where all the different groups present their country. All of them had their own way of presenting their culture, music, dance, food, etc.
12/3
2nd day
We visited the Valdesian Centre and Raffaele Arigliani (pediatrician
and counselor) presented to us a project about:
“Closing the circle of life - the role of Helpers". He talked about the different stages of grief and how it can affect us. We also were divided into groups where one person in each group talked about a problem for three minutes and the others couldn’t talk. With this kind of activity, I had the chance to be a speaker, and it helped me to learn how to express my feelings to people I had never spoken before. In addition, I learned from them how to see my problems from a different point of view, and they learned how to be good listeners and understand deeply a problem.
On the same day, there was a parallel event open to the public, where participants from Ukraine opened a dialogue, starting from their experience of activism in the war zone.
13/3
3rd day
We went to the Ballaro neighborhood on foot (an urban trekking). We visited a multicultural part of the city center where we met the organization ARCI Palermo, which runs a front office for migrants and many activities with inhabitants. Fausto Melluso is the president of the organization and the regional referent for Migration.
He met us there and introduced himself as a part of a team that is monitoring the situation of human rights in Migrants Centers in Sicily, denouncing abuses and mistreatments.
14/3
4th day
We learned psychosocial tools to work with youth and communities from Stella (psychotherapist -art therapist)
•MHPSS(mental health and psychosocial support) tools for planning interventions.
•Integrating the MHPSS approach into activities.
•MHPSS strategies and tools for beneficiaries and users: Psychological First Aid.
•Stress signs and self-care strategies The art therapist showed us a Drawing -Body activity in which each of us had to write a feeling, a word, or draw something (in different parts of the drawing body)that comes to our minds when we are stressed or we’re in panic. Then write a “tip” or ‘‘advice’’ for each stress sign.
15/3
5th day
We finished our project works in groups.
Finally, we wrote and collected all the lessons we learned during those 4 days in the workshop.
It was an unforgettable experience that I would definitely tell everyone to try it!
